


Late Night Scientific Hippies and Coffee (Or, The Epic Tale of How Bruce and Sean Met in Coffee Shop at Midnight)

by Dorkangel



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bakery and Coffee Shop, Bruce Is a Good Bro, Bruce is an Engineer, But a Good Bro, Charles and Tony are Related, Engineering, Erik is an Engineer, Exactly What It Says on the Tin, F/M, Fluff and Crack, Gen, M/M, Mark Ruffalo is the fucking best, Sean is a stoner, Sean is a student
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-01
Updated: 2014-11-01
Packaged: 2018-02-23 12:47:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2547989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dorkangel/pseuds/Dorkangel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>'It was nearly midnight when Bruce walked into the coffee shop. He had spent all night working on... things ...with a colleague of his, Tony, but apparently Tony needed no sleep or fuel, and Bruce did.<br/>Hence the desire for coffee.'</p><p>Bruce Banner is a softly-spoken, friendly, cuddly engineer, and Sean Cassidy is a sleepy, druggie, barista/student. Only in a coffee shop AU could they possibly meet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Late Night Scientific Hippies and Coffee (Or, The Epic Tale of How Bruce and Sean Met in Coffee Shop at Midnight)

It was nearly midnight when Bruce walked into the coffee shop, exhausted but still kind of friendly-looking and cuddly. He had spent all night working on... things ...with a colleague of his, Tony, but apparently Tony needed no sleep or fuel, and Bruce did.  
Hence the desire for coffee.  
All the lights were on, but there was no one at any of the tables or, apparently, anyone behind the counter. He coughed nervously and very nearly turned around to go, but, out of the corner of his eye, spotted a menu with a drink described as 'basically caffeinated hot chocolate' and felt his resolve implode. He walked over to the counter and tapped the little bell thing.  
No answer.  
He tapped it again, somewhat hesitantly, and received a murmured 'Five more minutes' from underneath the counter. Blinking off surprise, he put his big hands on it and leaned over, and spotted a lanky looking kid with an excess of freckles and bright red, curly hair escaping from under the apron he had thrown over his face, lying on the floor, asleep. Bruce bit his lip to keep from laughing sheepishly and ran a hand through his curly hair, leaning back. It was funny, but how was he supposed to get a coffee now?  
He leaned over again, going onto his tiptoes, and read the boy's name off his tag.  
"Sean," he called softly, his deep voice sounding kind of embarrassed. "Sean. Wake up."  
"Maeve," replied Sean sleepily, still with the apron over his head. "Babe, let me sleep. It's Saturday."  
"Um," said Bruce uncertainly. "I'm not Maeve."  
"'Course you're not," mumbled Sean continuing to not move. "She broke up with me. Again. Wait, are you a dude?"  
Bruce blinked. "Well, yeah, but-"  
"Man, how stoned was I last night?!"  
Bruce's brow furrowed. "I wouldn't know- look, you're still at work."  
"Huh?" The ginger kid shifted a little, pushing his apron off his face, and his eyes widened in panic. "Holy shit!"  
He scrambled upright, straightening out his uniform and staring nervously at Bruce with an apologetic smile.  
"Sorry! Sorry, bro. I haven't really slept in, like, four days."  
Bruce shrugged, pulling a bit of a face to show he understood. "I know how that feels. Are you a student or...?"  
"Yeah, student. I've got class with the owner of this place's younger brother, Alex, and he gave me a job 'cos I accidentally spent all my money on..." He flushed, and Bruce filled in the gap, smiling.  
"Weed?"  
"Uh, yep. Do you want anything to-"  
"Oh, um, a hot chocolate with-"  
"Coming right up."  
"I'm Bruce," added Bruce awkwardly. "By the way."  
"Hi! I'm Sean."  
"I know."  
"Oh, right. Hey, what're you doing up this late?"  
Sean was pretty cheerful as he made it up, even if he appeared to be making completely the wrong thing, so Bruce sat down at the counter and rubbed his face before answering.  
"I work at SHIELD Engineering, and we had a real breakthrough today. Technically, once I've finished this I'm going back to keep on at it."  
Bloody Tony and his bloody arc reactors, thought Bruce bitterly. Green power can go fuck itself, it's midnight.  
"Ouch." said the kid in sympathy. "I'm meant to be studying for this test, but I'm doing this and I'm also trying to sleep, y'know?"  
"What do you study?"  
"Biology. I'm doing a course in genetics."  
"With Professor Xavier?" asked Bruce, eyebrows raising.  
"Hey, yeah!" Sean turned around and started dumping sugar and suspicious powders into the coffee, grinning. "You know him?"  
Knew him? He was Tony's cousin, a generally helpful, friendly presence everywhere in the scientific world, and also happened to be fucking the owner of SHIELD Engineering's biggest competitor, Magneto Enterprises.  
"Yep," responded Bruce limply. "He's a nice guy."  
Sean shook his head, whistling. "Man, he's the only reason I haven't been kicked out yet. That and this tutor guy, Hank. I mean, it's not like I'm dumb or anything, but work requires a lot of effort, and the things I put effort into basically extend to playing Modern Warfare with my brothers and stopping Alex Freakin' Summers from setting fire to things. He's the brother of the guy."  
"Right." Bruce stood up and picked up his coffee. "I'll let you go back to sleep, then".  
Sean laughed. "Yeah, please don't tell my boss about that. Alex is cool, but Scott is king Boy Scout, goody-goody champion of the year. It's hilarious, actually, 'cos his boyfriend is the hairiest, meanest, muscliest guy. He's a Viking, probably only washes, like, once a year."  
Bruce, repressing the nerdy urge to tell Sean that Vikings washed very frequently, smiled friendlily and turned around to walk away.  
"Hey, Bruce-dude!" yelled Sean, when he was almost out of the door, and he looked over his shoulder. At some point, the kid had put on circular, John Lennon sunglasses. "Cool flip-flops!" Grinning lazily, he threw up a peace sign, and Bruce smiled reluctantly and gave him one back, and left.


End file.
